_DAVID'S CONFLICT WITH GOLIATH._
1 SAMUEL xvii.
These irrepressible Philistines were never long recovering from their
disasters. The victory of Jonathan had been impaired by the exhaustion
of the soldiers, caused by Saul's fast preventing them from pursuing the
enemy as far, and destroying their force as thoroughly, as they might
have done. A new attack was organised against Israel, headed by a
champion, Goliath of Gath, whose height must have approached the
extraordinary stature of ten feet. Against this army Saul arrayed his
force, and the two armies fronted each other on opposite sides of the
valley of Elah. This valley has generally been identified with that
which now bears the name of Wady-es-Sumt--a valley running down from the
plateau of Judah to the Philistine plain, not more than perhaps eight or
ten miles from Bethlehem. The Philistine champion appears to have been a
man of physical strength corresponding to the massiveness of his body.
The weight of his coat of mail is estimated at more than one hundred and
fifty pounds, and the head of his spear eighteen pounds. Remembering the
extraordinary feats of Samson, the Philistines might well fancy that it
was now their turn to boast of a Hercules. Day after day Goliath
presented himself before the army of Israel, calling proudly for a
foeman worthy of his steel, and demanding that in default of any one
able to fight with him and kill him, the Israelites should abandon all
dream of independence, and become vassals of the Philistines. And
morning and evening, for nearly six weeks, had this proud challenge been
given, but never once accepted. Even Jonathan, who had faith enough and
courage enough and skill enough for so much, seems to have felt himself
helpless in this great dilemma. The explanation that has sometimes been
given of his abstention, that it was not etiquette for a king's son to
engage in fight with a commoner, can hardly hold water; Jonathan showed
no such squeamishness at Michmash; and besides, in cases of desperation
etiquette has to be thrown to the winds. Of the host of Israel, we read
simply that they were dismayed. Nor does Saul seem to have renewed the
attempt to get counsel of God after his experience on the day of
Jonathan's victory. The Israelites could only look on in grim
humiliation, sullenly guarding the pass by the valley into their
territories, but returning a silent refusal to the demand of the
Philistines either to furnish a champion or to become their servants.
The coming of David upon the scene corresponded in its accidental
character to the coming of Saul into contact with Samuel, to be
designated for the throne. Everything seemed to be casual, yet those
things which seemed most casual were really links in a providential
chain leading to the gravest issues. It seemed to be by chance that
David had three brothers serving in Saul's army; it seemed also to be by
chance that their father sent his youthful shepherd son to inquire after
their welfare; it was not by design that as he saluted his brethren
Goliath came up and David heard his words of defiance; still less was
it on purpose to wait for David that Saul had sent no one out as yet to
encounter the Philistine; and nothing could have appeared more
ridiculous than that the challenge should wait to be answered by the
stripling shepherd, who, with his sling and shepherd's bag thrown over
his shoulder, had so little of the appearance of a man of war. It seemed
very accidental, too, that the only part of the giant's person that was
not thoroughly defended by his armour, his eyes and a morsel of his
forehead above them, was the only part of him on which a small stone
from a sling could have inflicted a fatal injury. But obviously all
these were parts of the providential plan by which David was at once to
confer on his country a signal boon, and to raise his name to the
pinnacle of fame. And, as usual, all the parts of this pre-arranged plan
fell out without constraint or interference; a new proof that Divine
pre-ordination does not impair the liberty of man.
One cannot but wonder whether, in offering his prayers that morning,
David had any presentiment of the trial that awaited him, anything to
impel him to unwonted fervour in asking God that day to establish the
works of his hands upon him. There is no reason to think that he had.
His prayers that morning were in all likelihood his usual prayers. And
if he was sincere in the expression of his own sense of weakness, and in
his supplication that God would strengthen him for all the day's duties,
it was enough. Oh! how little we know what may be before us, on some
morning that dawns on us just as other days, but which is to form a
great crisis in our life. How little the boy that is to tell his first
lie that day thinks of the serpent that is lying in wait for him! How
little the girl that is to fall in with her betrayer thinks of the
snare preparing for her body and her soul! How little the party that are
to be upset in the pleasure boat and consigned to a watery grave think
how the day is to end! Should we not pray more really, more earnestly if
we did realise these possibilities? True, indeed, the future is hid from
us, and we do not usually experience the impulse to earnestness which it
would impart. But is it not a good habit, as you kneel each morning, to
think, "For aught I know, this may be the most important day of my life.
The opportunity may be given me of doing a great service in the cause of
truth and righteousness; or the temptation may assail me to deny my Lord
and ruin my soul. O God, be not far from me this day; prepare me for all
that Thou preparest for me!"
The distance from Bethlehem being but a few hours' walk, David starting
in the morning would arrive early in the day at the quarters of the
army. When he heard the challenge of the Philistine he was astonished to
find that no one had taken it up. There was a mystery about this, about
the cowardice of his countrymen, perhaps about the attitude of Jonathan,
that he could not solve. Accordingly, with all that earnestness and
curiosity with which one peers into all the circumstances surrounding a
mystery, he asked, what encouragement there was to volunteer, what
reward was any one to receive who should kill this Philistine? Not that
he personally was caring about the reward, but he wished to solve the
mystery. It is evident that the consideration that moved David himself
was that the Philistine had defied the armies of the living God. It was
the same arrogant claim to be above the God of Israel, which had puffed
up their minds when they took possession of the ark and placed it in the
temple of their god. "You thought so that day," David might mutter,
"but what did you think next morning, when the mutilated image of your
god lay prostrate on the floor? Please God, your sensations to-morrow,
yea, this very forenoon, shall be such as they were then." The spirit of
faith started into full and high activity, and the same kind of
inspiration that had impelled Jonathan to climb into the garrison at
Michmash now impelled David to vindicate the blasphemed name of Jehovah.
Was it the flash of this inspiration in his eye, was it the tone of it
in his voice, was it the consciousness that something desperate was to
follow in the way of personal faith and daring, that roused the temper
of Eliab, and drew from him a withering rebuke of the presumption of the
stripling that dared to meddle with such matters? Eliab certainly did
not spare him. Elder brothers are seldom remiss in rebuking the
presumption of younger. "Why camest thou down hither? And with whom hast
thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride and the
naughtiness of thy heart; for thou art come down that thou mightest see
the battle." Irritating though such language was, it was borne with
admirable meekness. "What have I now done? Is there not a cause?" "He
that ruleth his spirit is greater than he that taketh a city." Eliab
showed himself defeated by his own temper, a most mortifying defeat;
David held his temper firmly in command. Which was the greater, which
the better man? And the short question he put to Eliab was singularly
apt, "Is there not a cause?" When all you men of war are standing
helpless and perplexed in the face of this great national insult, is
there not a cause why I should inquire into the matter, if, by God's
help, I can do anything for my God and my people?
Undaunted by his brother's volley, he turned to some one else, and
obtained a similar answer to his questions. Inspiration is a rapid
process, and the course for him to pursue was now fully determined upon.
His indignant tone and confident reliance on the God of Israel, so
unlike the tone of every one else, excited the attention of the
bystanders; they rehearsed his words to Saul, and Saul sent for him. And
when he came to Saul, there was not the slightest trace of fear or
faintheartedness about him. "Let no man's heart fail because of him; thy
servant will go and fight with this Philistine." Brave words, but, as
Saul thinks, very foolish. "_You_ go and fight with the Philistine? you
a mere shepherd boy, who never knew the brunt of battle, and he a man of
war from his youth?" Yes, Saul, that is just the way for you to speak,
with your earthly way of viewing things; you, who measure strength only
by a carnal standard, who know nothing of the faith that removes
mountains, who forget the meaning of the name ISRA-EL, and never spent
an hour as Jacob spent his night at Peniel! Listen to the reply of
faith. "And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep,
and there came a lion and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock; and
I went out after him and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth;
and when he arose against me I caught him by his beard, and smote him
and slew him. Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear; and this
uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied
the armies of the living God. David said moreover, The Lord that
delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear,
He will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine."
Could there have been a nobler exercise of faith, a finer instance of a
human spirit taking hold of the Invisible; fortifying itself against
material perils by realizing the help of an unseen God; resting on His
sure word as on solid rock; flinging itself fearlessly on a very sea of
dangers; confident of protection and victory from Him? The only help to
faith was the remembrance of the encounter with the lion and the bear,
and the assurance that the same gracious help would be vouchsafed now.
But no heart that was not full of faith would have thought of that,
either as an evidence that God worked by him then, or as a sure pledge
that God would work by him now. How many an adventurer or sportsman,
that in some encounter with wild animals has escaped death by the very
skin of his teeth, thinks only of his luck, or the happiness of the
thought that led him to do so and so in what seemed the very article of
death? A deliverance of this kind is no security against a like
deliverance afterwards; it can give nothing more than a hope of escape.
The faith of David recognized God's merciful hand in the first
deliverance, and that gave an assurance of it in the other. What! would
that God that had helped him to rescue a lamb fail him while trying to
rescue a nation? Would that God that had sustained him when all that was
involved was a trifling loss to his father fail him in a combat that
involved the salvation of Israel and the honour of Israel's God? Would
He who had subdued for him the lion and the bear when they were but
obeying the instincts of their nature, humiliate him in conflict with
one who was defying the armies of the living God? The remembrance of
this deliverance confirmed his faith and urged him to the conflict, and
the victory which faith thus gained was complete. It swept the decks
clear of every vestige of terror; it went right to the danger, without
a particle of misgiving.
There are two ways in which faith may assert its supremacy. One,
afterwards very familiar to David, is, when it has first to struggle
hard with distrust and fear; when it has to come to close quarters with
the suggestions of the carnal mind, grapple with these in mortal
conflict, strangle them, and rise up victorious over them. For most men,
most believing men, it is only thus that faith rises to her throne. The
other way is, to spring to her throne in a moment; to assert her
authority, free and independent, utterly regardless of all that would
hamper her, as free from doubt and misgiving as a little child in his
father's arms, conscious that whatever is needed that father will
provide. It was this simple, child-like, but most triumphant exercise of
faith that David showed in undertaking this conflict. Happy they who are
privileged with such an attainment! Only let us beware of despairing if
we cannot attain to this prompt, instinctive faith. Let us fall back
with patience on that other process where we have to fight in the first
instance with our fears and misgivings, driving them from us as David
had often to do afterwards: "Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why
art thou disquieted in me? Hope in God, for I will yet praise Him who is
the health of my countenance and my God."
And now David prepared himself for the contest. Saul, ever carnal, and
trusting only in carnal devices, is fain to clothe him in his armour,
and David makes trial of his coat of mail; but he is embarrassed by a
heavy covering to which he is not accustomed, and which only impedes the
freedom of his arm. It is plain enough that it is not in Saul's panoply
that he can meet the Philistine. He must fall back on simpler means.
Choosing five smooth stones out of the brook, with his shepherd's staff
in one hand and his sling in the other, he drew near to the Philistine.
When Goliath saw him no words were bitter enough for his scorn. He had
sought a warrior to fight with; he gets a boy to annihilate. It is a
paltry business. "Come to me, and I will give thy flesh to the fowls of
the air and to the beasts of the fields." "Thus saith the Lord, Let not
the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in
his might." Was ever such proof given of the sin and folly of boasting
as in the case of Goliath? And yet, as we should say, how natural it was
for Goliath! But pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit
before a fall. In the spiritual conflict it is the surest presage of
defeat. It was the Goliath spirit that puffed up St. Peter when he said
to his Master, "Lord, I will go with Thee to prison and to death." It is
the same spirit against which St. Paul gives his remarkable warning,
"Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall." Can it be
said that it is a spirit that Churches are always free from? Are they
never tempted to boast of the talents of their leading men, the success
of their movements, and their growing power and influence in the
community? And does not God in His providence constantly show the sin
and folly of such boasting? "Because thou sayest, I am rich and
increased with goods, and have need of nothing, and knowest not that
thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked."
In beautiful contrast with the scornful self-confidence of Goliath was
the simplicity of spirit and the meek, humble reliance on God, apparent
in David's answer: "Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear,
and with a shield; but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts,
the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will
the Lord deliver thee into my hand; and I will smite thee, and take
thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the Philistines
this day to the fowls of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth,
that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this
assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear; for
the battle is the Lord's, and He will give you into our hand."
What a reality God was to David! He advanced "as seeing Him who is
invisible." Guided by the wisdom of God, he chose his method of attack,
with all the simplicity and certainty of genius. Conscious that God was
with him, he fearlessly met the enemy. A man of less faith might have
been too nervous to take the proper aim. Undisturbed by any fear of
missing, David hurls the stone from his sling, hits the giant on the
unprotected part of his forehead, and in a moment has him reeling on the
ground. Advancing to his prostrate foe, he seizes his sword, cuts off
his head, and affords to both friends and foes unmistakable evidence
that his opponent is dead. Rushing from their tents, the Philistines fly
towards their own country, hotly pursued by the Israelites. It was in
these pursuits of flying foes that the greatest slaughter occurred in
those Eastern countries, and the whole road was strewn with the dead
bodies of the foe to the very gates of Ekron and Gaza. In this pursuit,
however, David did not mingle. With the head of the Philistine in his
hands, he came to Saul. It is said that afterwards he took the head of
Goliath to Jerusalem, which was then occupied, at least in part, by the
Benjamites (Judges i. 21), though the stronghold of Zion was in the
hands of the Jebusites (2 Sam. v. 7). We do not know why Jerusalem was
chosen for depositing this ghastly trophy. All that it is necessary to
say in relation to this is, that seeing it was only the stronghold of
Zion that is said to have been held by the Jebusites, there is no ground
for the objection which some critics have taken to the narrative that it
cannot be correct, since Jerusalem was not yet in the hands of the
Israelites.
It cannot be doubted that David continued to hold the same conviction as
before the battle, that it was not he that conquered, but God. We cannot
doubt that after the battle he showed the same meek and humble spirit as
before. Whatever surprise his victory might be to the tens of thousands
who witnessed it, it was no surprise to him. He knew beforehand that he
could trust God, and the result showed that he was right. But that very
spirit of implicit trust in God by which he was so thoroughly influenced
kept him from taking any of the glory to himself. God had chosen him to
be His instrument, but he had no credit from the victory for himself.
His feeling that day was the very same as his feeling at the close of
his military life, when the Lord had delivered him out of the hand of
all his enemies:--"The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer;
the God of my rock, in Him will I trust; He is my shield and the horn of
my salvation, my high tower and my refuge, my saviour; Thou savest me
from violence."
While David was preparing to fight with the Philistine, Saul asked Abner
whose son he was. Strange to say, neither Abner nor any one else could
tell. Nor could the question be answered till David came back from his
victory, and told the king that he was the son of Jesse the
Bethlehemite. We have already remarked that it was strange that Saul
should not have recognized him, inasmuch as he had formerly given
attendance on the king to drive away his evil spirit by means of his
harp. In explanation it has been urged by some that David's visit or
visits to Saul at that time may have been very brief, and as years may
have elapsed since his last visit, his appearance may have so changed as
to prevent recognition. On the part of others, another explanation has
been offered. Saul may have recognized David at first, but he did not
know his family. Now that there was a probability of his becoming the
king's son-in-law, it was natural that Saul should be anxious to know
his connections. The question put to Abner was, Whose son is this youth?
The commission given to him was to enquire "whose son the stripling is."
And the information given by David was, "I am the son of thy servant
Jesse the Bethlehemite." It may be added that there is some difficulty
about the text of this chapter. It seems as if somehow two independent
accounts of David had been mixed together. And in one important version
of the Septuagint several passages that occur in the received text are
omitted, certainly with the result of removing some difficulties as the
passage stands.
It is not possible to read this chapter without some thought of the
typical character of David, and indeed the typical aspect of the
conflict in which he was now engaged. We find an emblematic picture of
the conquest of Messiah and His Church. The self-confident boasting of
the giant, strong in the resources of carnal might, and incapable of
appreciating the unseen and invincible power of a righteous man in a
righteous cause, is precisely the spirit in which opposition to Christ
has been usually given, "Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away
their cords from us." The contempt shown for the lowly appearance of
David, the undisguised scorn at the notion that through such a stripling
any deliverance could come to his people, has its counterpart in the
feeling towards Christ and His Gospel to which the Apostle alludes: "We
preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the
Greeks foolishness." The calm self-possession of David, the choice of
simple but suitable means, and the thorough reliance on Jehovah which
enabled him to conquer, were all exemplified, in far higher measure, in
the moral victories of Jesus, and they are still the weapons which
enable His people to overcome. The sword of Goliath turned against
himself, the weapon by which he was to annihilate his foe, employed by
that very foe to sever his head from his body, was an emblem of Satan's
weapons turned by Christ against Satan, "through death he destroyed him
that had the power of death, and delivered them who all their lifetime
were subject to bondage." The representative character of David,
fighting, not for himself alone but the whole nation, was analogous to
the representative character of Christ. And the shout that burst from
the ranks of Israel and Judah when they saw the champion of the
Philistines fall, and the enemy betake themselves in consternation to
flight, foreshadowed the joy of redeemed men when the reality of
Christ's salvation flashes on their hearts, and they see the enemies
that have been harassing them repulsed and scattered--a joy to be
immeasurably magnified when all enemies are finally conquered, and the
loud voice is heard in heaven, "Now is come salvation, and strength, and
the kingdom of our God and the power of His Christ; for the accuser of
our brethren is cast down, that accused them before our God day and
night."
Lastly, while we are instructed by the study of this conflict, let us be
animated by it too. Let us learn never to quail at carnal might arrayed
against the cause of God. Let us never fear to attack SIN, however
apparently invincible it may be. Be it sin within or sin without, sin in
our hearts or sin in the world, let us go boldly at it, strong in the
might of God. That God who delivered David from the paw of the wild
beast, and from the power of the giant, will make us more than
conquerors--will enable us to spoil "principalities and powers and
triumph openly over them."